


Let Her Go

by WhereverUAre



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Angst, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Hurt Nico, Hurt/Comfort, caring jason, lost nico, sick Reyna
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-05
Updated: 2013-12-05
Packaged: 2018-01-03 14:08:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,771
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1071355
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhereverUAre/pseuds/WhereverUAre
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Who takes care of the perfect Reyna Avila Ramírez-Arellano when she falls ill ?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Let Her Go

Reyna wobbled through her room till she reached her bed before face planting on it. The war with Gaea had ended but the praetorship fell heavily on her shoulders.

The struggle to return to normalcy after the war was just as taxing as the real war itself. Repairs had to be made all over New Rome. It had to be brought back to liveable condition which in itself would take a long time. It would take even more time and effort to bring it to the shape needed to train young heroes. The wounded needed to be taken care of, the medics given proper equipment and essential commodities replenished as they were dwindling out at an alarming rate. And these were just the most demands that had to be met by her governance. Octavian was making her job extremely difficult, countering her every move and constantly conspiring and instigating the public against her.

Her male counterparts were off chasing glory and flitting from one place to another quelling all the gods and creatures who were still hoping that the war hadn’t ended. Jason, Piper and Leo were in San Diego dealing with a Cyclops problem while Percy and Annabeth were trying to restore peace in Camp Half-Blood.  Frank and Hazel were off trying to find a secure location for the Harpy whose blood Octavian was after. Nico was somewhere underground. Reyna suspected that he was moving through the Labyrinth; trying to figure out how much of Gaea’s army was still active underground.

All in all, her colleagues who could have helped were off leaving her to deal with the result of someone else’s follies. She had gone almost two weeks with less than four hours of sleep every day. She didn’t even have a chance to recover from her journey from Greece to Camp-Half Blood and then from there to New Rome. The minute she was back in New Rome, she was completely engulfed in important work that immediately needed her attention. She was constantly dogged by demands. They ranged from replenishing supplies of godly food to repairing the tiles on the bottom of fountains. . No one was willing to let their demands take the back seat for a while.

Reyna couldn’t help but feel a little bitter that her fellow praetors, all three of them, had taken off with their respective others to claim glory while leaving her alone to handle all of this. Surely, they must realise that this is too much work for one person. There were two praetors elected for a good reason. They couldn’t abandon the duties of their posts, especially not in a time like this. Octavian was all but out for her blood and she could not afford to have any holes in her armour now. So Reyna did what she did best. She ploughed ahead, all alone if that’s what the job needed. Slowly pushing out the scrolls off her bed, Reyna fell into an uneasy sleep wishing that she had shut her windows.

Reyna saw Nico in her dreams. He was, as she suspected, in the labyrinth. He was walking through a darkly light maze; a skeleton warrior was holding a torch and leading the way. He didn’t seem to be in any danger and coolly trying to make his way through the maze. His sword was casually hanging by his side. He looked skinny as usual, but seemed to be recovering well from the ordeals of the battle.

The last time Reyna had seen Nico, he was barely more than a corpse. The shadow travelling with the statue had been more taxing than any of them had anticipated. Nico had barely survived the ordeal. He had withered to a skeletal figure towards the end. The last few shadow trips took too much out of him and there were so many monsters as they got closer to the camp, Reyna had to carry him on her back and fight. Reyna remembered frantically checking his pulse from time to time to ensure that the last shadow trip was not what finally ended the life of the son of Hades.

But they had made it, and by the looks of it, Nico was recovering well.  As he continued walking, the torch flickered and died suddenly, leaving them in pitch darkness. Reyna shouldn’t have been able to see anything in the darkness but she could see the scene as if through night vision glasses. She could see a gigantic serpent slither along the length of the corridor while Nico brought out his sword. The dead warrior seemed to be able to see the snake and was moving his skeletal head along with its movement. Suddenly, the serpent reared its head and struck at Nico who brought up his sword. Reyna screamed out a warning and immediately jolted up in her own bed.

Reyna immediately rolled out of bed and took in her surroundings. She was in her room and had barely slept for two hours. She pulled out a gold drachma and IMed Percy. She tried not to feel too gleeful when she realised that she woke him up a few hours before the break of dawn. Reyna informed him of her dream but as she feared even he did not know where Nico was headed and it would be impossible to locate the young demigod in the labyrinth now. Nico would have to figure out his way and until they knew a little more about his location, going after him in the labyrinth was a suicide mission. She asked Percy to let her know if he comes by any knowledge and terminated the call.

Reyna sat down feeling drained after the conversation. The perspiration on her face from her dream had still not dried up and if anything she felt queasier than she did before.  Her stomach was knotting up and she felt that her clothes were quite damp from sweat.  She knew this feeling and had felt it a very long time ago.

Reyna internally cursed a lot of gods, praetors who abandoned their posts to go on quests with their girlfriends and stupid statues that dogged her to repair grass hedges. This was not the time for the sole acting praetor to fall sick! There was simply too much work to do and the people of New Rome had suffered a great set back. They could not have their little hope stamped out when they saw a sick praetor. Octavian would seize this opportunity and upturn whatever work she had done so far to restore New Rome.

Reyna looked around her room and found a small bowl of fruit. She ignored the smell that turned her stomach and gulped an apple and stomached half a banana. She looked through her medical cabinet and took the mortal medication for fevers. She set an empty bucket by her bed and lay down in bed. She drifted to sleep hoping that by morning, she would be feeling well enough to continue her work.

Jason returned to New Rome and started walking towards his chambers. Piper and Leo had returned to Camp Half-Blood. Jason figured that he should spend some time in New Rome after seeing the amount of work that was being put in by Percy and Annabeth to restore the camp. Reyna seemed to prefer to work alone especially after manning the ship by herself all by herself for a while; Jason didn’t see her taking to co-ordination all of a sudden. But Jason figured that Octavian couldn’t be making things to easy for her and he should pitch in a hand every now and then. It was also important to ensure that the ties between New Rome and Camp Half Blood didn’t fail. So after the quest ended, he headed towards New Rome. He could see the lights blazing in Reyna’s room and felt a little guilty. It looked like she had worked all night and was still working at the early morning hours. He walked into his cabin and promptly fell asleep on his bed.

Jason woke up in the afternoon to the sounds of an odd metallic scraping against his door. He had heard that sounds various times before. Reyna’s dogs were as expected sitting at his door when he opened it. The metal dogs were whining at his door and kept running back and forth from his door to Reyna’s.

 Jason immediately drew his gladius and rushed towards her chamber and broke the door open.  Surprisingly the door wasn’t dead bolted as Reyna normally did. The room was stinking of sickness and in a condition of total disarray. Reyna or the bundle of blankets on the bed that Jason assumed was Reyna was thrashing around in the bed.

 Jason locked the door behind him and slowly approached the bed. Being in Reyna’s bedroom made him nervous; the last time had not exactly gone as planned. The bedside table was littered with half eaten fruits and mortal medicine.

Jason tried to ignore the stench coming from a bucket placed near the side of her bed. Even sick, Reyna had impeccable aim. He gently tried to untangle Reyna from the bedclothes when she startled awake. Her face was covered in sweat and her skin had a green tinge to it. She was gaping at him before she swung herself to the side of the bed and threw up into the bucket. The room was filled with the sick sound of sickness hitting the puke filled bucket. It took all of Jason’s determination not to cringe away from her.

He walked into the adjoining room and returned with a glass of water and a wet washcloth. He adjusted the pillows to let Reyna lean on them and handed her the wash cloth.

She tried to look intimidating as she accepted it wordlessly but the effect was lost on him when he noticed that she was shaking all over.

 He knew that a clean room gave Reyna a lot of peace of mind. She watched with half lidded eyes as he tried to clean up as much as possible. Jason realised that she was probably not sure that he was really there.

“Reyna just rest for a while. I’ll go get a medic.” Jason didn’t really expect a reply and headed towards the exit. He was startled when a frog like voice spook from behind him.

“No, wait. I cannot afford to let the people know that I’m sick.”

Jason spun around to see if she was joking. The working praetor of New Rome was heavily leaning against the pillows, shivers wracking her body sweat pouring down her face and holding his gaze with determined eyes. Jason realised with a sinking feeling that even now Reyna could not tolerate the idea of letting her guard down.

“You cannot expect to fight this with just mortal medicine by yourself. You are really sick, Reyna. Let me just call a medic. You’ll feel much better. I promise.”

“You don’t understand. This place is barely recovering. I cannot afford to let anyone know that I’m sick. There is too much going on. If the senate found out...”

It finally struck Jason. Reyna had been shouldering a lot more then Jason believed that she was doing.

He remembered how stressful it was to be a full time praetor with a terrific leader like Reyna by his side. He couldn’t imagine doing it alone and in a war time at that. The senate and Octavian could not have been making it easier for her.

 A lot of hope that they would recover from the war depended on the way the leaders carried themselves. It was important for them to reassure the people that this was a setback that they could recover and wasn’t as bad as the people feared. The people were counting on the praetors and Jason had abandoned her.

This wasn’t even the first time he had done so in Reyna’s time of need he remembered guiltily. Now Jason realised, he couldn’t go to a medic. Reyna couldn’t fight of this sickness by herself. He once again turned to her for advice.

“What should we do now?”

He hated himself for asking her. The one time she absolutely needed him and couldn’t distance herself in the time of her need, Jason was still asking her, depending on her counsel. 

“You could go to the medical bay and get some god food. And don’t go dressed like that.”

Jason nodded at her and carefully locked the door as he exited. He put on his praetor robes, straightened himself up a bit and walked purposefully to the medical bay.

 The bay was entirely in a state of chaos with medics running around with too many people to tend to. This was the state in which he had left his people behind. Jason frowned and went over to the closest medical supply shelf and quickly pocketed a few squares of god food. He met the head medic and noted down all the supplies they were in dire need of.

After reassuring a few people that everything was fine and under control, he left the bay. The god food weighed heavily in his pocket as he walked back to the praetor chambers. The sun was setting and he now noticed all the repairs that were being done around the place. He noticed the awe in the glances people threw at him. The hero had returned victorious once again but there was no time to celebrate now. He rushed back to Reyna’s chambers; he had left her alone too many times now.  

Reyna was still in bed when he came back. Jason was happy to see that she had eaten some of the fruit that he replaced by her bed. Reyna was not someone you had to wait hand and foot on. She was determined to get back on her feet as soon as possible. She protected her independence so fiercely she made it impossible for someone to care for her.

Piper was so transparent that way. She had no issues expressing when she needed help. Piper could let people in. She didn’t make you feel inferior every time you were vulnerable in front of her.

Jason handed Reyna the medicine and held a glass of water for her to drink it. He watched as she stubbornly insisted to hold her glass despite her shaking hands.

“Thank you, I’ll be better soon.”

“Reyna, why don’t you go to sleep? I’ll stay here till you feel a little better.”

“There is too much work a praetor right now. I don’t need someone to sit by my bedside. I’ll be fine in a few hours. Everyone must be looking for me.”

Jason hesitated. It was true. The praetor had a lot of people looking for her. He had left her dogs watching the door and Jason was sure that that was the only reason people hadn’t knocked the door down demanding Reyna to sign the papers to replace their bathroom tiles or whatever they deemed important.

“All the work can wait for a few hours. Go to sleep.”

“Fine, but you go look after the work. This is too important to delay.”

“I’m sure they can manage without either of us for a few hours.”

“Jason, we have been locked in one room for hours now. Piper is on the other side of the country. She will not be happy to hear the rumours that will stem from today when she visits. You don’t need to do this. Go out, shake a few hands and reassure people that all is going according to plan.”

“They know that everything is fine. The people here, they know that they are in safe hands. I walked around the place when I went to get the medicines. Everything is going according to plan. Things are on schedule. There is no pressing matter that we need to delve into right away. And don’t worry about Piper. I can deal with her. If she loves me, she will understand that I needed to be by my friend’s side.” 

Reyna could not have looked more unconvinced. But she was also sick and tired. She just turned around in her bed and without another word, dozed off.

Jason smiled at her sleeping face. For all the airs and strategies of Reyna, she looked like a small child when she was asleep. He spread the blanket over her and dimmed the lights in the room. He then put his feet on her bed, leaned back in his chair and took a nap himself.

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by Let her go - Passenger  
> Find me on Tumblr at whereeveruare(.)tumblr(.)com


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